How Paul Heckingbottom's summer signings are leading Hibs revival

Paul Heckingbottom in training with summer signings Christian Doidge (left) and Adam Jackson. The pair have become key players under Jack Ross

While it may come as little consolation to him as he waits for his next job in football, Paul Heckingbottom can be deemed to have had retrospective vindication with regard to some of his work at Hibs.

When the Yorkshireman was axed at the start of November with the team languishing tenth in the Premiership, the most commonly-used stick to beat him with was that his recruitment hadn’t been up to scratch, that he’d signed a bunch of duds who weren’t equipped for the demands of the Scottish Premiership.

In total, ten new signings arrived last summer during Hecky’s only transfer window at the wheel - Scott Allan, Tom James, Chris Maxwell, Adam Jackson, Melker Hallberg, Joe Newell, Christian Doidge, Josh Vela, Glenn Middleton and Jason Naismith.

By the time Heckingbottom left 48 hours after the Betfred Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic, Allan - who had been signed on a pre-contract last January before the Yorkshireman had replaced Neil Lennon - was the only one of the ten who had any genuine credit in the bank with supporters.

Few would have shed any tears at that point if any of Doidge, Newell, James, Vela, Jackson or Naismith were to have followed Heckingbottom out the exit door at that very point.

Dempster's defence

When Leeann Dempster faced the media on the eve of the trip to St Johnstone, a few days into the search for Heckingbottom’s successor, she was asked, among other things, what had gone wrong during the summer transfer window. "I don't think anything went wrong,” she replied defiantly, adding: "I think we have a strong group of players here.”

At that point, supporters were having none of it. Hibs’ summer transfer window had been deemed an unmitigated disaster by most, and - it seemed - nothing was going to change that perception.

Yet a little over three months down the line from Heckingbottom’s departure, his recruitment all of a sudden looks a lot less damning than it did during his own time in charge.

Since his own exit, three of Heckingbottom’s summer signings have left the club - Middleton, Vela and Maxwell. It goes without saying that none of this trio, who departed Easter Road in last month’s transfer window, can be considered to have made any notable impact during their short stints at Hibs.

Nothing but net for former basketballer Doidge

On the other side of the coin, however, four of the summer signings have since gone on to prove themselves shrewd acquisitions.

Doidge, who waited until the first game after Heckingbottom’s exit to score his first league goal, has now scored ten Premiership goals and 16 in total for the season.

Albeit belatedly, Heckingbottom’s desire to convince Hibs to shell out a six-figure fee for the former Forest Green Rovers striker has been vindicated.

Naismith and Newell

Naismith is another who came to the fore in the immediate aftermath of Heckingbottom’s departure. The on-loan Peterborough United right-back started only three games under the former Barnsley and Leeds United manager but, after an excellent display in the 4-1 win at St Johnstone under caretaker Eddie May, he went on to start 11 games in succession - to very good effect - before succumbing to a campaign-ending knee injury in the Scottish Cup clash with Dundee United last month.

More recently, both Newell and Jackson have started to make their presence felt in the team after indifferent starts to their Hibs careers. Newell started only two of Heckingbottom’s last 12 games in charge and was widely written off by supporters following a largely ineffective opening few months in Edinburgh.

Following an excellent contribution as a second-half substitute in the 2-1 home win over Hamilton Accies in January, the Englishman has started six of the team’s last seven matches, playing in central midfield and at left-wing-back.

He has chipped in with a regular flow of assists - including two in the victory at Kilmarnock on Sunday - and has now won over the majority of supporters who initially doubted Heckingbottom’s wisdom in signing him from Rotherham United.

Jackson's rise

With Hibs fans hoping for a high-calibre replacement for Efe Ambrose, who had left the previous January, Jackson didn’t initially seem to fit the bill. In his early appearances, the former Barnsley looked a steady enough centre-back without being particularly impressive.

The fact he started only four of Heckingbottom’s last 13 games in charge, at a time when the team were struggling to keep the ball out of the net, suggested even the man who signed him wasn’t fully convinced of his merits.

However, Jackson has emerged as a strong and commanding presence for Hibs in recent weeks, with strong performances at Fir Park, Ibrox and Rugby Park, as well as at home to Ross County since injury to Ryan Porteous and a recent switch to 3-5-2 paved the way for him to force his way more prominently into the plans of Jack Ross.

Turnaround

It is reasonable to assume now that Newell, Jackson, Doidge and Allan would all start in Ross’s first-choice XI, while Naismith would have kept his place if not for injury. That equates to 50 per cent of last summer’s signings being given pass marks, which is a pretty good strike rate for any club in the fraught business of player recruitment.

Of the other summer 2019 signings who remain at Easter Road, James and Hallberg are now mostly found on the substitutes’ bench but are occasionally coming on to help Ross’s side in their quest for Europe. These two probably fall into the “jury’s out” category.

The “poor recruitment by Hecky” narrative grew arms and legs in the early months of this season and it was one peddled by myself on more than one occasion. Although Heckingbottom was ultimately unable to get the best out of any of his signings, it is only fair that he is given some retrospective credit for a summer recruitment drive that has turned out to be nowhere near as bad as it initially seemed.